Donald Trump Again Threatens Libel Law Change To Squash Press Coverage Of Administration

As the Senate Intel Committee’s hearings on alleged Russian tampering with the presidential election got underway, President Donald Trump again tweeted his intention to change libel laws, targeting The New York Times. Trump’s tweet directs his followers to a New York Post editorial, headlined “The New York Times ongoing dishonesty only helps Trump.”

Not long after, NYT published a report alleging two White House aides were the sources of the information that caused House Intel Committee chair Devin Nunes to assert the Obama administration may have monitored associates.

Trump again states that The New York Times is “failing” though its subscriptions have surged as it covered the election cycle and, now, Trump’s administration.

Trump has been promising to change libel laws since he became a White House hopeful. A year ago, the former reality-TV star told a Forth Worth, Texas rally he would “open up” libel laws as president, in order to go over NYT and WaPo.

“I’m going to open up our libel laws, so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.”